17 comments:

I'm tempted to say that Blizz didn't want to screw around with a winning formula too much; the Night Elf cat form was almost inarguably the best of the classic forms. Changing it to the degree that Tauren cat form was changed would probably have been counterproductive.

That said, I do think the Tauren forms came out the real winners here, and whether that's just because they had nowhere to go but up or because the new forms win on their own merits is a matter of opinion, I guess.

Allison, thanks for coming by. I actually like the design of the new cats fairly well - and as you say, I think I like it because it is essentially a hi-res upgrade of the previous version, which was clearly the best of the lot. But...does everything have to be pink and purple to that degree? They managed to make the bears much more varied in color while retaining that Nelfness; I'm surprised that the color palette is so limited.

Especially when compared to the Tauren versions.

I genuinely think that the Tauren version are really good looking, and not by comparison. They stand on their own very well. Many people in my guild are rolling druids just for the feral forms.

I've always been glad to be Horde if only because I love, love, love the Tauren, but had to love them in spite of the ugliest Druid forms in the game and really boring female Tauren cast animations. XD I'm really glad that the forms are changing, at least.

I think the crux of the matter is that there are certain elements of caster form -- pastel colors/glowing eyes for Night Elves and horns/long muzzles for Tauren -- that don't lend themselves to shapeshifting without looking terribly awkward. The palette, as you observe, is pretty limited for Night Elves, whereas Tauren have a lot more contrast and strong coloration in theirs, and it just looks better on the black background the forms were parked against.

I'm going to try to make my first video post on the day that 3.2 hit the PTR, looking at all the different combinations for both Night Elves and Tauren, and try to see how they look in motion. Til then I'll reserve judgment - but, wonder of wonders, we may actually reach the point where Tauren cat form looks better than its Night Elf counterpart. Surely the apocalypse is nigh.

One pink cat doesn't bother me, but others have the pink 'taint' to them also. I also don't care for the 'accessories'. Night Elves are maybe fruitcakes but they are capable more tasteful choices in decoration then a hanging candy lollipops and kinky leather bracelets.

Zoblefu - heh. Sorry; I've been busy at work and really haven't had much to write about. I'll be updating the loot pages soon for Ulduar, and probably doing some kind of ranking for cats if only so I can reference it myself.

I'll also probably be talking about niches here in the future and try and figure out a reasonable way to take that on.

Actually the cat ranking is one I would love to see. Maybe talk about armor penetration some too? I've been reading over on EJ and they go on and on about how good ArP is for cat dps.

I've been using this for my cat loot rankings so far: (from EJ forums)http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4&filter=minle=200;ub=11;cr=123;crs=3;crv=0;gm=3;gb=1;wt=114:21:20:117:119:103:96:97:77;wtv=1.80:1.49:1.41:1.35:1.35:1.25:1.19:0.71:0.59

I love your blog -- I'm dual spec feral/feral (bear/cat) and raiding Ulduar every week and your posts are very insightful and helpful...

We've killed all the guardians as of last week (so the first 12 bosses).

Anyway, thanks for your work and your replies... a cat ranking and perhaps discussing ArP for cat dps would be great :)

ThinkTank bio

About Me

Kalon likes playing tanks, no matter how hard he tries to fight it. He is not as hardcore as many but spends a lot of time thinking about WoW, and randomly rants about it now and then. He played formerly on the Argent Dawn (EU) server and was a founding member of Fire and Blood (Quel'Dorei) before joining Casually Serious, a guild devoted to hard core progression on only 8 hours of raiding time a week.
He is a devoted husband, father, and when he has the time programs software.